{"id":2911,"date":"2022-05-25T01:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T01:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2022-05-25T01:06:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T01:06:00","slug":"four-lccc-students-earn-bachelor-of-applied-science-degrees-in-microelectronic-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/25\/four-lccc-students-earn-bachelor-of-applied-science-degrees-in-microelectronic-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Four LCCC students earn Bachelor of Applied Science degrees in Microelectronic Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Lorain County Community College conferred four\u00a0Bachelor of Applied Science in Microelectronic Manufacturing<\/a>\u00a0(MEMS) degrees during its 58th commencement ceremony on May 14. LCCC has been training students in the field since 2013 when it became the first community college to offer an associate degree in MEMS. The college made history again in 2018 as the first community college to deliver an applied bachelor\u2019s degree in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur MEMS program has been a game-changer for students who are looking to break into the exploding MEMS, sensors and semiconductor industries,\u201d says LCCC President Marcia J. Ballinger, Ph.D. \u201cWe started this program after listening to the needs of local employers and forecasting nationwide industry trends. When students graduate from our MEMS program, they aren’t just prepared for great careers ahead, they’ve already started them.\u201d<\/p>\n

LCCC\u2019s MEMS program is delivered in an effective and replicable \u201cearn and learn\u201d format where students work while attending college. Often times the local company at which a student completes their internship offers a full-time position upon graduation. Not only does this model of learning give students opportunities to gain work experience while they are in school, making themselves more attractive to future employers, it allows students to earn a livable wage as they complete the program.<\/p>\n

Paul Gonzalez, of Avon Lake, has been working at Lincoln Electric during most his time in the program. He started out assisting the Quality Assurance team and then moved into manufacturing engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a full-time job with Lincoln Electric with benefits and everything, right out of college,\u201d Gonzalez, 23, says.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Ellis of Lorain, who found out about the program from his grandmother who saw it on a news segment, also has a full-time position waiting for him this spring. It\u2019s with a local company that repairs bitcoin miners, where he\u2019s been working part time while in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a job waiting for me and I\u2019m currently at a job right now,\u201d Ellis, 22, says. \u201cThey have a structure laid out for me when I graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The earn and learn format, along with the low cost of community college tuition, have been significant drivers of growth for both the associate and bachelor\u2019s degree programs. Enrollment over time in both MEMS programs combined has increased from three students in 2013 to 153 in 2022.<\/p>\n

Kurtis Jeffries of Norwalk was planning to move out of state before meeting his wife. He started looking for local career opportunities and attended a MEMS info session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to take a tour of the clean room and get a better idea of what the program was like,\u201d Jefferies says. \u201cI took one course that summer and that\u2019s when I solidified that I was going to get into this degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries, 28, gained his workplace experience at Dan-Mar Company, an industry leader in contract engineering, design, development and manufacturing of electronic products. He says the immediate hands-on experience, direct line to employers, and quick time to degree confirmed he made the right choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I kind of cheated in a way; like it\u2019s too good to be true,\u201d Jeffries says. \u201cThe work that the program director and all the supporting staff have done to make this degree so palatable to local industry has really made a huge difference in all of the students\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work-based learning is a staple in many LCCC programs and Cody Wootton of Avon Lake thinks that approach helps set LCCC apart from other higher education institutions. Wootton joined the MEMS program after leaving a four-year university and says the curriculum was in-depth and hands on from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one you\u2019re in there, learning how to gown up, soldering circuit boards,\u201d Wootton, 26, says. \u201cYou\u2019re finding out how things work, how to do things, and you\u2019re actually experiencing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wootton, who has been working at embedded hardware and software solutions provider LogiSync, says part of what makes the MEMS program in particular so unique is associate professor, Johnny Vanderford.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dedication and commitment to this program should not go unrecognized,\u201d Wootton says. \u201cI transferred in from a four-year university and those kinds of professors do not exist at other colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderford says the program has always been a groundbreaking one, but recent national news has magnified his enthusiasm. Vanderford is referring to Intel bringing its most advanced chip manufacturing operation in the world to Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s monumental; it\u2019s beyond anything I thought I\u2019d be here for as a community college,\u201d Vanderford says. \u201cTo know that we\u2019ve already been training students in the microelectronic processes that Intel and resulting supply chain companies will need access to solidifies LCCC’s position as a leading provider within the talent pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lorain County Community College conferred four\u00a0Bachelor of Applied Science in Microelectronic Manufacturing\u00a0(MEMS) degrees during its 58th commencement ceremony on May 14. LCCC has been training students in the field since 2013 when it became the first community college to offer an associate degree in MEMS. The college made history again in 2018 as the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,74],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[77],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ohio","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",640,320,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",700,350,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop.jpg",500,250,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MEMS-bachelors-grads-2022-crop-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Ohio<\/a> Top Stories<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Lorain County Community College conferred four\u00a0Bachelor of Applied Science in Microelectronic Manufacturing\u00a0(MEMS) degrees during its 58th commencement ceremony on May 14. LCCC has been training students in the field since 2013 when it became the first community college to offer an associate degree in MEMS. The college made history again in 2018 as the first","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}